Too often we think we need to have the answer, to be the all-knowing orb, have the solution to every problem. It seems like an oxymoron to suggest that the answer is not in what we say, but in the questions we ask. The leader who can set themselves apart from the pack is not the one with the best answer, but the one with the better question.
The best compliment is not the person who says, “How wise you are, thank you for imparting your knowledge,” the greatest compliment is the person who says “That’s a good question, I need to think about that.”
Providing answers is a passive exercise; you only need to sit back and absorb what you have imparted. Questioning, on the other hand, is an active exercise that stimulates brain activity. The minute a question is posed, the brain goes to work to find the answer. Even if you don’t have the answer to a question at that moment, it will reverberate through your brain long after it has been asked.
Peter Drucker said, “The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of the wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong question.”